Select Local Merchants

Since 1984, Three Rivers Rowing Association has become one of the largest community-based rowing and paddling clubs in the country, converting neophytes into boating lovers and helping experts hone their form. With the use of two boathouses located on the Allegheny River, the club is home to crews from three local colleges and nine high schools and was named the 2002, 2010, and 2013 Club of the Year from USRowing. In addition to winter and summer rowing leagues, the club runs amateur dragon-boating leagues and sponsors the Pittsburgh Paddlefish, a dragon-boating team that competes at the international level.

Since 1984, Three Rivers Rowing Association has become one of the largest community-based rowing and paddling clubs in the country, converting neophytes into boating lovers and helping experts hone their form. With the use of two boathouses located on the Allegheny River, the club is home to crews from three local colleges and nine high schools and was named the 2002, 2010, and 2013 Club of the Year from USRowing. In addition to winter and summer rowing leagues, the club runs amateur dragon-boating leagues and sponsors the Pittsburgh Paddlefish, a dragon-boating team that competes at the international level.

Steel City Rowing Club imparts sweeping and sculling competence on youth and adult rowers with classes designed to gradually build up confidence and ability. Certified coaches lead land and water training sessions that familiarize participants with the equipment and techniques used in rowing and foster a reliance on teamwork, a pivotal component in mastering mid-river games of musical chairs. Indoor rowing sessions build endurance and stability with rowing-machine practice, weight and core training, and yoga. Rowers then apply newly acquired skills amid the scenic, undeveloped wetlands of the Allegheny River, with training in multipassenger rowing shells as well as kayaks, canoes, and inflatable manatees. Each session holds a maximum of 32 students, with at least one coach per 16 rowers.

Hazelbaker's equips river riders of all skill sets with the necessary gear to leisurely float down the scenic Youghiogheny River. Bring a friend, a loved one, or a newborn clone, and embark on a three- to four-hour expedition from the bowels of a canoe or two-person kayak. Each trek begins in Dawson and ventures along 8 miles of riverbank, snaking past lush forestry, vibrant wildlife, and baby Class I flat-water currents. The easy-to-navigate flow of the river and lack of overzealous bow captains allow neophyte rowers to keep up with more experienced paddlers and more experienced paddlers to keep up with paddlefish. Each excursion ends in Layton, where new-fangled river farers can ditch their vessels and head to town to swap stories of river life with the local historian.